Introduction Obesity is a complex, multifactorial chronic disease involving genetic, physiological, metabolic, behavioural, psychological and environmental components. The global epidemic of overweight and obesity—“globesity”—is rapidly becoming a major public health problem. It has reached epidemic proportion in India in the 21^st century.

Methods The present population based study has been conducted in rural and urban areas of Ludhiana district, Punjab State (India). The study included 1615 Punjabi adults comprising 875 from rural and 740 from urban area. Demographic variables (age, sex, SES, lifestyle) and anthropometric parameters—height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference were recorded. Biochemical analysis viz. cholesterol, Na and K were also done.

Results Out of 1615 subjects, 44% were males and 56% were females. Half of the subjects were in the age group of 20–40 years. Overall prevalence of overweight and obesity has been found be 18.8% and 46.6%, respectively. Prevalence of obesity is slightly higher in rural subjects than the urban. The percentage of obese subjects is 54%, 55.35% and 56.44% in the age groups of ≤30 years, 31–40 years and 41–50 years, respectively. Prevalence of obesity has been computed in relation to sex, SES and lifestyle. Serum cholesterol level was significantly (p=0.007) higher among obese (192.24±41.39) than non obese (179.27±39.57) subjects. No significant difference of Na and K was observed between obese and non obese subjects.

Conclusion The prevalence of obesity is alarmingly high in adult population of Punjab.